I know Ritchie and Shannon can both play center and you may also be asking why Burrows and his biblical nine points from last season are on the third line. Don't ask such questions, just let it be friends. You can mix up those bottom six all you want and - Isbister notwithstanding - you have some grit there. And I'm not even including Vigneault-favorite Rypien in there.

Remember when we faced the now Cup-holding Ducks and, with no Kesler or Cooke around, had only Cowan to show some spine? Sweet memories...

An aside - it's simply amazing the news Canuck fans get excited about isn't it? A fourth liner signing? Maybe there will be a new crotch trainer hired later in the week to allow us to get just excited enough to coast through to next Monday. (Crotch training is all the rage in 2007 baby).

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Not bad to have the grit around... and I don't even mind Burrows up on the second line. The one that bothers me a lot is the fact that Cooker's up on line 2.

The bottom six are made for grinders and shot-blockers. Morrison is a bit of a risk at number 2 centre, but theoretically if Kesler can find that scoring touch that's been reported to be there, it might reverse to Kesler at 2 and Morri at 3, which would be a decent set-up. But the fact that we have nothing on the right wing beyond Pyatt is frightening.

Now, if Isbister can prove to be another Pyatt, we have some depth, with Cooke dropping back down to third the same as Morrison. But banking on that seems risky to me. I'd love to see Linden back in the mix, but even then it'd just be adding more of a crowd to the bottom half of the roster, and inevitably would wind up pushing even more third- and fourth-liners up to the top lines. Cooke and Morrison not cutting it? Maybe Linden-Nazzy-Kesler. No, still? Why not Ritchie, Burrows, Naslund?

Argh.

It's a good thing that Vignault is a great shuffler of lines, because with this set of forwards the chances are slim that he's going to get any sort of consistent scoring out of any line but number 1.

I have Cooke up there because that's where he at least started last year. Plus, until Kesler proves himself a bit more, he's a not a top six guy. It really comes down to Cooke, Kes and Isbister and the latter two are not cracking it in my book without earning it. Burrows...he should really be on the 4th line based on last year. The bottom six you can still mess around with, but that top six is still missing a piece.

If nothing else changes, I think it'll be Kesler and Isbister who will jump between lines two and three depending on their play and Ritchie and Shannon who can go between three and four (if not between four and the Moose).